The Fall and Rise and Fall and Rise of Mephibosheth II Samuel 4:4; 9:1-13; 16:3-4; 19: 24-30 A lot of parents give their children Biblical names. But I don t recall ever hearing of someone naming their son Mephibosheth. That s a mouthful, isn t it? Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, David s lifelong friend. Of course, that meant that he was the grandson of Saul, Israel s first king, the king who abandoned God and His will. And in a battle with the Philistines, Saul was killed, as was Jonathan. On hearing the news, the nurse who was caring for Mephibosheth, picked him up and started to escape with him. With members of the royal family dead, she was concerned rightly so that the Philistines would be after him too, even though he was only five years old. But in her haste, she dropped him; he landed on his feet hard and apparently both feet were shattered. And being that there were no good orthopedists in those days, he was permanently injured. The Bible calls him lame or crippled let s just say that he had mobility issues. And he disappears from the Biblical record for a time. Until David is firmly established as the king of Israel the one God ordained for that position. And remembering his friendship with Jonathan, David seeks out a man named Ziba, who had been a servant of Saul. And he asked him: Is there anyone left from Saul s family that I can show kindness to for the sake of my friend Jonathan? In response, Ziba brought Mephibosheth to David, who not only gave him all the land that had belonged to Saul, not only commanded Ziba to be his servant for the rest of his life, but also gave Mephibosheth a place at the royal table. He, and his young son, Mica, were treated as a part of the king s own family. Now that s kindness. The dynasty of Saul had disappeared. But David chose to give Mephibosheth a position of honor. Until David s son Absalom led a rebellion against his father actually took the kingdom away from him for a time. And in this political turmoil, Mephibosheth remained in Jerusalem, convinced that the people would get tired of both Absalom and David and the civil war that had ensued, and place him on the throne of his grandfather Saul. Which, obviously, did not happen. David returned to the throne after Absalom s death. And the Davidic dynasty remained intact. And Mephibosheth? He reconciled with David and came back to the king s table, living under the protection of David for the rest of his life. So, where does his story lead us? Brett Francis Kelly was the youngest of six children. He was born with an extra 21 st chromosome. We would call him special today, but not in the days when he was born. He was labeled with the R
word. Which I won t even repeat. Family members whispered the bad news though tears; doctors suggested institutionalization. But his parents loved him as much as the older five. Three years after he was born, his mother died; his father held the family together by making Brett the center of it. Even after his father lost his job because he had missed so much work while his wife was dying. Brett never grew up. He had no edit button. No rewind button either. He was loud, rambunctious at times, and annoyed people who didn t know him. But he was his father s best buddy. And as his father s health deteriorated, all of his siblings argued about Brett s care when Dad died. He wasn t a burden no one wanted to bear they all wanted him. But Brett died first, on the night before his sister s wedding. At the funeral mass, the family priest spoke of how Brett was a gift. His extra chromosome allowed him to give what everyone else needed. Brett s brother, in his eulogy, stated: People always told us we were a great gift to Brett. It was the other way around. He was a great gift to us. Mephibosheth wasn t a burden to David financially or politically. He was a gift a gift that allowed David to show kindness, compassion, comfort, respect, dignity. Remember Jesus parable of the wedding feast? He told His listeners: don t just invite those who will return the favor; invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind and you will be blessed. God will repay you. The world is full of Brett Kellys. And Mephibosheths. Even churches are. How will we treat them? What will we do for them? How will we make them welcome in our lives? Those may be tough questions to ask ourselves. Even uncomfortable ones. But by putting them first, instead of sending them to the back of the line, we are showing who and what we really are. On the day after Easter, we had a conversation with Tom Wolfe. Not the governor of Pennsylvania, but a man who waited on us in Boscov s. The conversation turned to church matters and he told us that he was involved in street evangelism. And he told us about a young woman - Caucasian in his church who was engaged to a young man from Nigeria obviously African. He had spoken to them both and told them that if anyone referred to their relationship as a mixed marriage, they should reply that theirs was not a mixed marriage - they were both Christians. Which gave them an opportunity to talk about what was really important to them their faith. I just wish that I could see some of the expressions on the faces of the people who got that reply! But Tom Wolfe was right. Faith is what binds us together. Not race; not social status; not country of origin. Faith. I think that s why David did open up the royal table to Mephibosheth. Yes, he was the son of Jonathan, David s brother in all but biology. But it was because they shared something more they were both children of God. Both men, who, though they both had faults, put God first in what they did. They were faith brothers. And that s all that mattered.
And isn t that the case with all of us? We are Christians first. Last. And always. And the love of God must always be seen in our relationships with each other. Even when it isn t easy to feel. As John said in First John 4:20: If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar. A hard statement, isn t it? But isn t that what matters most in our lives? In our Christian walk? In our relationship with God and each other? Are we doing it? As that is a tough question to ask, it is an even tougher question to answer honestly that is. Two monks were on a pilgrimage. On their journey, they came to a ford in a river. Being no other way to continue, they decided to wade across. But at the bank of the river, there was a young woman, dressed in all of her finery, not knowing how she was going to get across the river herself. With no hesitation, one of the monks picked her up, placed her on his shoulders, and carried her across to dry ground. The monks continued on their way. But after about an hour, the second monk started complaining to the first monk about what he had done. They were celibate, he reminded the first monk, and they were not to have any physical contact with women. He continued to complain for quite some time. The first monk finally looked at his companion and said: I set her down by the river an hour ago; why are you still carrying her? Good question. One we need to ask ourselves, too. Why do we carry the stuff of life that we don t need to carry? Why do we bring with us into our relationships the negativity and hurt feelings and even resentments that only damage them? Why do we look at others who, well, yes, honestly, do annoy us, frustrate us, get on our nerves, and fail to put the burden of those attitudes down? And we all do. You know we all do. You know, David could have imprisoned Mephibosheth, exiled him, even executed him. He was, after all, the heir apparent to Saul s dynasty. And look at how Saul had treated David. He was a threat to his throne. Besides, David had just fought a civil war with his own son. You can t be too careful about how someone might turn his or her back on you. But David was more committed to the relationship he had had with Mephibosheth s father, Jonathan. Or as Paul tells us in his chapter on love in I Corinthians: Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right. Another tough question: Do we? And an even tougher answer to find in our soul. It s not easy. Nothing that matters ever is. But when we put God first in all of our relationships, we find the way to set things down and get on with our lives. You know, I ve read the story of Mephibosheth a number of times, and I really wasn t sure what it was about other than some tying up of the loose ends of the David-Jonathan-Saul saga. And when I decided to preach on it, I really wasn t sure where the story would take me. Or where the Holy Spirit would take me. Until I started working on this sermon and rereading the Scriptures. There s a story about a little boy who was asked to recite the Golden Rule at the closing program for his Sunday School. He went to the microphone and boldly said: Do unto others before they do it unto you. That s the iron pyrite rule Fool s Gold.
And that s NOT what the story of David and Mephibosheth is about. It s about a love, a compassion, a measure of respect and dignity, and a bundle of forgiveness that changes the recipient and the giver. It s about putting God and what He wants from our relationships first. Do you? Do I? Do we?
Worship April 15, 2018 Call: litany Assurance: Litany Children s Message: art museum a Gallery of armor. But armor bends, rusts, etc. God s armor. Keeps us safe. Prayer: Loving God, open our hearts to Your way of living. Open our hearts to You way of loving. For only as we love others, unconditionally, do we really live the life You want us to have. May we look at others through Your eyes, hear their words through Your ears, feel their needs with Your heart, and touch them where they hurt with Your gentle hand. Help us to live our lives so that those we meet, those we know, and even those who get under our skin will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, and nothing else. Needs, etc. LORD S PRAYER